Rituals
by Vera Kate
Summary: Valentine's Day has its own set of rituals.


**Rituals**

**A/N:** This is my short story debut in the grander _Women of the Otherworld_ universe. I hope you read and enjoy! I currently have a story, _Promises Made_ that features _Darkest Powers_ and_ Darkness Rising_ characters and what happens when they finally are introduced to the _Women of the Otherworld_ universe at large. I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day or at least enjoys the day after, the Best Day for Purchasing Chocolate. Please read and review!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the _Women of the Otherworld_ series.

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Rituals are important from an anthropologic perspective. It tells an outsider how a people channel an abstract idea into something concrete. Sometimes it was used to explain natural or supernatural events, sometimes it was used to explain what simply was, and sometimes it was used as a form to torture men as to what women wanted.

Elena, for the most part, was an atypical woman. It was one of the things that had drawn Clay towards her. However, she loved rituals. She performed them without a hesitation. She still couldn't bake, despite her years of trying to make cookies to decorate at Christmas time, she still wanted to stay up until midnight to mark the beginning of a new year, and she still wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was something peculiar about her. He thought that she would have scoffed at the entire notion of the holiday, but it was a ritual.

The problem with Elena's adherence to rituals was the fact that she didn't seem to fit the typical expectations for this particular ritual. Sure, she enjoyed chocolate. She liked flowers but she didn't fawn over them like most women. Hell, she only recently started wearing her ring, so jewelry was out of the question.

It left Clay with the one part of the ritual that he knew that she would enjoy and he would loathe. She would enjoy being taken out to a nice dinner, in a restaurant, _full_ of _people_.

He had already talked Jeremy into watching the twins. Well, it didn't take much convincing on his end. Jeremy enjoyed having the twins under his charge and they doubly enjoyed it. He didn't want to know what he let them get away with. He would probably let them get away with murder if they whittled him down enough.

The challenge would be getting Elena out the door. She would insist that they didn't need to do anything; she was fine just staying in.

He was wrong. When he proposed the idea to her, she latched on to it tightly. It _had_ been a while since they went somewhere alone and wasn't related to Pack business.

Now that the day had arrived, he both wanted to enjoy it and wanted it _over_ with. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time alone with Elena, it was that he had to spend it with _other_ people.

He would do it, of course. He would do his best to keep her from noticing that he was uncomfortable with it. He would perform the ritual with her. He didn't need to reassure her of his feelings for her. They were in plain sight for anyone to see. He never thought that he was capable of feelings that went as _deep_ as they did for her. He loved his children, no doubt about that, but he had expected that. He had expected that because they were a manifestation of _their love_.

They didn't talk much on the drive to the restaurant. It was a comfortable silence. It would be too easy to talk about Pack matters or the children. No, the ritual demanded that the evening be romantic. Discussing the latest mutt that was out of line or how Kate managed to trick a classmate while Logan stole their snacks were not romantic in any sense.

The restaurant was as the ritual required. It was adults only, dimly lit, and had absurdly small portions even for a normal human. Elena smiled at him over her dessert. They would pick something up on the way home. It wasn't part of the traditional ritual but starving certainly wasn't. Allowances had to be made.

They made their way back to the car. They _should_ be walking hand in hand, her head on his shoulder, their bodies constantly changing but they weren't. She walked slightly ahead of him. It was comfortable that way. It was one of the few things he had been comfortable with all evening.

They picked up a pizza on the ride home. She grinned at him as they waited in the parlor. She was used to people paying attention to them when they went out together. He knew it would happen but did his best to ignore it. At least she was wearing her ring tonight. There would have been longer glances and more eyes if she hadn't.

Once they made it back to Stonehaven, they snuck back to their room. They each had a few slices, silencing the rumbling their stomachs had been making.

He watched her as she made her way over to him. She pulled at his lip with her teeth. He raised his eyebrow in response. He brought his lips crashing to hers.

There were some parts of the ritual he didn't mind.


End file.
